Pitched as a solution, Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin’s clean gas crusade may prove to be a big misstep for the Victorian Liberals, writes Joy Toose.
JUST DAYS after the crushing defeat of the Federal Coalition, Brad Battin, Leader of the Victorian Liberal Party, came up with a new term to describe a dirty old problem: “clean gas”.
The problem is that gas isn’t a clean alternative. In fact, it isn’t cleaner than coal, and the only real clean alternative is solar and wind. Victoria is facing a serious gas shortage and the Liberal Party won’t own up to it — the real reason there is very little new gas development happening in Victoria is because there’s very little gas.
Which is why the Allan Government is making sensible moves to electrify our state. Battin’s “clean gas” rhetoric is simply his party’s latest desperate attempt to rebrand the same old devil — polluting methane gas.
Battin is talking about the same gas that accounts for 17 per cent of Victoria’s climate pollution and is already responsible for nearly a third of global warming, according to the International Energy Agency. And it’s the same gas that accounts for around 12 per cent of childhood asthma in Australia, according to the Australian National Asthma Council.
It’s certainly not “clean” but frankly, in Victoria, that’s not the biggest problem because whatever you call it, Victoria’s gas supply has been running dry for some time now.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has repeatedly warned about shortages driven by the decline of Victoria’s once-plentiful Bass Strait gas reserves. AEMO’s latest forecast warns of shortages from 2028, unless urgent action is taken.
Battin and his party aren’t offering any credible plan to head off shortfalls. Instead, they’re going down the well-worn culture war route to try to win over Victorian voters with a confected gas war. The problem is that Battin’s attempt to whip up an argument about whether gas is “clean” or not is simply a distraction from Victoria’s geological reality that we’re out of readily accessible gas.
True, there are small pockets of gas left in Victoria, including, controversially, under the 12 Apostles, but nothing at a meaningful scale. The gas drilled from smaller and smaller pockets won’t be enough. Burning gas at the same rate would mean Victoria has to import more and more gas from interstate or overseas, and both options will expose Victorians to the spiralling and unstable costs of international gas markets.
Which is why the Victorian Government is making plans to gradually shift more Victorian homes across to all-electric as old, inefficient gas hot water systems and heaters break down. By making sure these outdated gas appliances are replaced with modern, efficient electric ones, Victoria will be using the only real solution to our gas problem — reducing demand.
It’s not good enough to try and rebrand gas and take shots at the Allan Government’s plans. The Victorian Opposition needs to explain how it would tackle shortfalls and what it would cost us.
The Federal Election showed us just how thoroughly Australians saw through former Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s culture wars and nuclear distraction. Australians voted for a government with a plan to power our homes and our economy with affordable renewable energy.
Unless Brad Battin changes his tactics of falsely claiming an illusory notion of clean gas will magically fix Victoria’s energy shortfalls, his party is doomed to meet the same fate as his Federal counterparts.
This Article was first published at Independent Australia